Other forms: penguins
A penguin is a black-and-white bird that cannot fly but swims in cold seas. A colony of penguins, emperor penguins, the penguin dived.
The wings became flippers, and it flies underwater instead — the stroke is the same, the medium different. All eighteen species live in the southern hemisphere, so penguins and polar bears never meet. The name's origin is genuinely unknown, though it was first used of a northern bird.
1nounpenguinA flightless black-and-white seabird of cold southern seas.
“Penguins can't fly, but they are excellent swimmers.”
penguin is a bird.
The origin is unknown. It was first used in the sixteenth century of the great auk, a northern bird, and later transferred south.
Latin
pinguis — fat
Welsh
pen — head
English, today
penguin
Built from
From pen + gwyn. unknown. 16th century in reference to the auk of the Northern hemisphere; the word was later applied to the superficially similar birds of the Southern hemisphere (as was woggin). Possibly from Welsh pen (“head”) and gwyn (“white”), or from Latin pinguis (“fat”). See citations and the Wikipedia article. nun originates from the often black-and-white habit worn by nuns, which resemble the bird's colors.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA